Summer is coming – let’s stay safe in the water

For many Canadian families, summer includes activities such as boating and swimming. But each year, tragic and avoidable water-related fatalities occur across Canada. A Canadian Red Cross report examining these fatalities over 10 years revealed many common factors:

Young children ages 1 to 4 and men ages 15 to 44 are at the greatest risk of drowning.

Drowning is one of the leading causes of unintentional death for Canadian children ages one to four.

A small child can disappear in seconds and can drown in only a few centimetres of water-enough to cover the mouth and nose. Typically these drownings occur in backyard pools, toddler pools, the bathtub, or at the beach.

Small children are also the most vulnerable group for near drownings. For every death, there are an estimated four to five additional near-drowning incidents, which require hospitalization and often result in varying degrees of brain damage.

Infants and toddlers drowned mainly in bathtubs and pools, whereas older children and youth drowned mainly in large bodies of water.

Other factors for adults in water-related fatalities included current and alcohol consumption.